


Basketball

by Willow



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: 1st person pov, M/M, character introspection, previously unposted, short works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-23
Updated: 2004-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:33:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow/pseuds/Willow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander has something hit him during a game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Basketball

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly inspired by a joint universe ObsessedMuch and I were playing with. She's the only reason I ever looked at Riley as interesting enough to write about. Written: 2004/Jan/23

See, the thing about self revelations is; they choose the most inopportune moments to make their mark. It's never when you're sitting down somewhere, all crossed legged and into meditation, or lying in bed having a restless night, or even conveniently while you're eating breakfast and humming along to the cartoon theme song on the tv.

Self revelations come in the midst of battle with a huge 7 foot scaled slimy thing, that's preternaturally interested in your insides. Or when you're rushing to the hospital, scared out of your wits, trying not to hit the other cars around you. Or, in this case, when you're flat on your ass, like I was, and your best male friend reaches down to pull you up, and the sun's behind him, and the wind's blowing at the muscle shirt, and the smile on his face suddenly makes your knees weak and you're glad you're sitting, cause if you weren't you'd fall down; one because your knees just gave out and two, because there's a sudden shift downstairs that spells major embarrassment in loose jersey shorts, already wet with sweat from the third pick-up game you've played for the day.

"Xan, you alright ?" Riley shot a dark look at one of the two men we'd been playing against and finally stooped down, eyes flickering over my body in a standard injury check that shouldn't have felt as intrusive as it did.

We'd battled the 7ft ugly last night, and so the possibility that I could be injured and not have realized it was valid but slim. We'd been playing basketball for most of the morning now. This was the first time I'd spaced. But, I nodded anyway. "He's not a draktarr demon. I'll survive."

"Hey Finn, your girlfriend there gonna play ball, or should we just take the money now."

Ok, this was personal now. Why ? Because a minute ago that comment would have rolled right off my back. Right now though, my throat went dry and here I was sneaking a glance up at Riley though my hair to see how he was taking it.

And there was that smile again.

"Xander would make a better girlfriend than you've ever had. We've got trust between us. That cell phone of yours hasn't stopped ringing since you got here. Short leash McConnelly ?"

Riley stood back up and I grabbed his hand and we were up again, walking for water, figuring out the foul.

I took a minute to turn away from the court and take a sip from our shared water bottle. Yeah, self revelations definitely have incredibly poor timing.


End file.
